It's Home
by Pantoum
Summary: Laxus comes home after a long solo mission, relieved to be back to a warm bed, good food, and most of all, Freed.
1. Chapter 1

Heavy footsteps clumped up the brick pathway towards the little white house on the outskirts of Magnolia. Laxus hitched his bag higher up on his shoulder and inwardly cursed at his agreement to buying a house so far away from the main city. As he stepped up onto the dimly lit porch, he felt the flow of defensive runes over his skin. The runes passed over him and dissipated after a moment, allowing him to walk forward and open the unlocked door without fumbling around in the darkness for a key. Having a rune mage for a partner had its perks, he thought smiling slightly.

Toeing off his boots and dropping his duffle bag at the threshold, Laxus craned his neck trying to work out the kinks. It was late, and he had been going almost non-stop trying to get home early from a mission that had requested him alone (a pain in the ass side affect of winning the magic tournament), in an effort to make it back before the Fantasia parade the following day. _It's gonna be nuts this year with all the popularity we've gained. Gramps will go crazy to make up for the time we were stuck, damn we'll embarrass ourselves again, what a pain, _he thought, although he was slightly excited for the parade he hadn't really enjoyed since he was a child. Laxus however had no intention of following along with the old man's over the top ideas without a fight, and keeping his teammates from falling into the Masters ideas.

These thoughts flitted through his mind quickly as he mostly focused on making it silently down the dark hallway to the warm bed where his lover was likely sleeping. Laxus wasn't at all perturbed by the thought that the man had not waited up for his return, even though he had told his lover that he planned to return as soon as possible. _He may be a night owl, but it is too late for him to even be up reading, or rather too early now._

Rubbing a hand over his face and shedding his traveling clothes, he looked forlornly at his fur coat, which was pierced with multiple holes. _Fucking son of a bitch,_ he thought. _Who the hell shoots fucking knitting needles? Not even in the job description, those bastards._ He stood outside the bedroom door and fumed for a minute, before dropping the coat the ground with his shirt and pants and turning the knob quietly entering the darkened bedroom.

His lover would probably be irritated with him in the morning for getting into bed without showering first, but the missions had been long, shitty, and nothing like what he would normally choose. Laxus had missed his house and warm bed, good food and watching his guild mates make a ruckus, but most of all he had missed the man currently laying curled up around his pillow in the center of their bed.

_Freed_, he thought, the name laced with affection he rarely showed to anyone nowadays. For the past ten months the green haired rune mage had been an exception. Laxus wasn't entirely sure when he began to fall in love with the captain of the Raijinshū, only that by the time they returned for the tournament he was completely infatuated with him. At first it had pissed him off, and he denied his attraction to the rune mage vehemently, even though he had always been mildly aware of the man's more-than-loyal-follower attraction to him.

When it was his turn to do battle in the tournament and his asshole father put up that illusion, he hadn't realized at the time the level of shock and worry it had placed in his guild, most of all his 'bodyguards.' Had Laxus realized how upsetting such a thing would be for Freed, he wouldn't have taken the time to hold a conversation and just smashed the whole of Raven Tail from the start.

Laxus was almost surprised when he saw Freed anxiously waiting for him in the hallway, arms wrapped around his midsection while he waited for his thunder god. It took a good amount of restraint to stop his self from embracing the obviously distressed male and it took Freed the same level of restraint to stop himself from jumping the lightning mage and looking for injuries. He may have had an unlimited amount of faith, but it appeared he also had a healthy amount of paranoia in his system when it came to his leader.

Watching Freed, who he knew had been pining after him for years without saying anything at all, hold himself back as he probably had done countless time that Laxus realized that if he didn't do something the two of them would spend the rest of their lives holding themselves back. So without a second thought, he took two large steps forward and ensnared Freed into a (somewhat crushing) hug.

Almost immediately the green-haired beauty froze up and flushed a tomato red and tried to pull away in embarrassment, at which point Laxus practically growled at the man to stay still. It wasn't until later that night after the guild 'celebrated' with a rather large amount of alcohol that he pulled the giggling rune mage into his bed and they arose the next morning more than just friends.

It took two months for Laxus actually tell Freed that he truly loved him, to which Freed blushed like a school girl and shyly said he returned the sentiment and they officially started dating. He had given the house to Freed as a gift, knowing that the rune mage had wanted to have a place they both could call home together, and finally getting fed up himself on having to decide whose place they would be going back to after missions. Freed idea of repayment for agreeing to move farther from the city was simply an added bonus.

And here they were, their guild mates still oblivious to their relationship (they hoped to keep it that way for awhile longer), making up for all the time they spent denying one another.

Laxus, who by now had completely pushed aside his irritation towards his coat, quickly crept across the soft carpet and pulled the pillow gently from his lovers grasp, easing down next to him in its place. Freed stirred slightly, tightening his arms around the thunder god before burying his face into the thunder gods chest and letting out a contented hum. _Its cute how he snuggles up to me even when unconscious_ Laxus chuckled, running his fingers through long green hair and pulling Freed flush against him, reveling in the warmth he radiated.

_Yes,_ he thought drifting off; _it's so good to be home._


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, it seriously made my day! Here's the next chapter, sorry it took me so long!  
**

Freed woke up the next morning feeling warmer and more rested than he had in days. It took a few moments for his sleep addled brain to realize the source of said warmth, and by the time it finally clicked he had almost fallen back asleep.

_Laxus is home_, he thought happily, a smile curling at the corners of his thin lips. It had been little more than a week since Laxus had left for another solo mission per request, but the time had felt like an eternity to Freed who had just started getting used to having the lightning mage all too himself. It had been three months since they had moved in together, but it felt like the small house had always been Freed's home- and in a way it was, all because Laxus was living there with him.

Even as a child, the green haired rune mage had never felt such a strong sense of 'home' as he did now. He had never really been a part of the family, being the offspring of a wealthy aristocrat and his affaire, a foreigner from outside Fior, who sent her child to the man moments after his birth. Unwanted by his mother and an embarrassment his father wanted to keep hidden, Freed had runaway before he turned seven, and had been more than glad to have been welcomed into Fairy Tail with warm arms after what felt like a lifetime of the cold shoulder.

He could still remember the day he first met the man he would later follow for the rest of his life. The Master had asked him to go along with Laxus on a mission to gather information about some of the higher class citizens funding dark guilds, to make sure the rebelling teenager didn't go out of control and beat the answers out of people. The rune mage did agree, of course, even though he had only seen the Masters' grandson in passing glances around the guildhall.

In the beginning they hadn't really gotten along at all. Laxus was standoffish to Freed because the Master had sent him and Freed didn't approve of Laxus's violent and somewhat rude behavior to almost everyone. They hardly spoke to each other as Freed was naturally quiet at the time and Laxus was almost constantly in a foul mood. The mission took much longer than expected, as their leads kept going around in circles, sending them cross country on a wild goose chase through the aristocratic population.

About five minutes in to their first interview with a wealthy businessman Freed understood why the Master had picked him to look after Laxus. The lightning mage had neither the patients nor the mental capacity to deal with the upper class's riddles and attempts to keep their own dirty secrets out of the light. After years of being a dirty secret himself, Freed subtly worked himself into the conversation and gained as much knowledge as he could before the blond blew his top and stormed out in a rage.

It was this working from the sidelines that attracted Laxus's notice. The lightning mage didn't miss that when they followed Freed's advice they moved further forward instead of running around in circles. One thing led to another and Laxus eventually found himself not minding the rune mage's shadow like company. Freed had stayed mostly indifferent towards the other until they suddenly found themselves pointed in the direction of Freed's old family. The events that followed were both pleasant and horrible for Freed, as they led both to Laxus's endearment to him and the confrontation of the past he had so desperately tried to run away from.

A loud growl snapped the green haired man from his thoughts and he looked at his bedmate in surprise, expecting to see anger of some sort. But the blonds face was smooth, calm, and still very much asleep, if a bit haggard looking from working such long hours. Befuddled, Freed pulled away slightly to study the man more carefully when he heard the growl again. From Laxus's stomach, that is. Chuckling lightly, the rune mage smiled fondly and disentangled himself from his lovers embrace and quietly eased off the bed and padded his way across the room and out the door. A noise like that meant Laxus hadn't eaten since early yesterday and would soon be waking up grumpy if food wasn't ready for him. _Honestly, he's so hopeless, in such a rush to return he forgot to feed himself- that's so like him, _Freed thought.

As he exited, Freed began picking up the trail of clothing that Laxus had left behind on his way to bed, intending to throw it into the laundry room on his way to the kitchen. When he picked up the dragon slayers signature fur coat, he noticed it was pierced almost to shreds with multiple holes. _What on earth did he get himself into?_ He wondered with wide eyes, looking over the damaged material. _I suppose I'll have to try and salvage it, and in the worse case scenario try to convince Laxus to just by another one. It's endearing and frustrating how childish he can be about these things… It looks like I know what I'll be doing later._

The green haired man winced and chided himself on how much he sounded like a housewife, doing all the mending and washing and cooking and cleaning, while Laxus had been out working. He was used to such things by now, having looked after Bixlow and Evergreen for all those years, but ever since he and Laxus had started living together he had been feeling the difference between their gender roles more and more. Freed had always taken on the role of mother hen, since his team mates could be rather hopeless at day to day tasks, (which was a large part of the reason he had been designated captain), so all of the shopping and paperwork was mostly done by him.

Although they often complained that Freed was an OCD control freak, it was always him they came to for help. Bixlow would whine constantly about having too many vegetables for dinner, but when Freed told him to go find his own food, he would cram the broccoli into his mouth with a smile. Evergreen often came to him yelling about how her shopping budget was too small; however, when given all the accounting papers and told to work out the budgets herself, she would snap her mouth shut and thank him for her 'allowance'. And Laxus couldn't say anything when Freed dutifully stood through all his temper tantrums and worked through the consequences of his actions later, when most would have just left him from the beginning.

Adding the coat to his mental list of things he needed to get done today, Freed tossed the dirty clothes into the laundry nook in the hall and continued barefoot through the open archway onto the cold tile floor of the kitchen. Starting up the stove and buttering a pan, he began the task of making enough bacon and eggs to feed the likely monstrous appetite of the hungry dragon slayer, who would no doubt be waking any moment now to lumber his way towards the wafting smell of cooking meat.

Just as he suspected, as soon as the bacon began turning, a strong pair of arms wrapped around his waist and he felt his partners chin rest on his shoulder. "Hmmmm," Laxus hummed into Freed's bed-ragged green hair, nuzzling his face closer to his beloved. "That's for me, I hope," the blond mumbled lazily.

Leaning happily into his touch, Freed smiled and replied, "Who else? It's simple for a welcome home breakfast, but to be fair I didn't think you would be getting home until this afternoon. I'm glad you came back early though."

"Tch. These jobs have been nothing but a pain in the ass. If the old man didn't expect me to, I never would have taken any of them. I'd much rather be here getting warm breakfast everyday than eating shitty hotel food and sleeping in a cold bed." Laxus grumbled back as he moved away to let Freed finish cooking, settling himself at the table to watch.

"How did this one go? You didn't tell us much about it before leaving. You're jacket may be too far gone to be mended, by the way" Freed said, sliding the bacon onto a paper towel and starting up pancakes and eggs.

"It was stupidly easy; a D class mage could have pulled it off with zero effort. The only fucking problem was they information was basically nothing and this jackass wannabe-bandit shot _fucking knitting needles _and shredded my coat from behind," the blond growled out, tensing up from his relaxed position and narrowing his eyes. "If this fucking mission hadn't been a solo request I wouldn't have had this kind of problem. You would have been there to watch my back and beat the shit out of him for me."

Freed hummed in reply and smiled. It always made him happy when Laxus acknowledged his ability to watch his back and look after himself in a fight. In a way Laxus was showing his desire have Freed watch his back in particular, and not just his personal bodyguards.

Turning off the stove when the food was finished and feeling slightly warm inside knowing that his god was there to eat breakfast with him again, Freed turned around and placed his cooking on the table. It was easy to fall back into the routine of breakfast together; it wasn't much different from all the times the team had eaten Freed's cooking together on missions. It was almost expected now for Laxus to pull out the utensils and drinks while Freed placed the dishes in the sink.

What the rune mage had not expected, however, was for Laxus to wind his arm around his waist and pull him down onto his lap as he was walking past.

"L-Laxus! W-what are you doing?" Freed squeaked, wide eyed and tense from the blonde's sudden action. His fingers gripped Laxus's muscled forearms and craned his neck around to look at his captor.

"Relax," He said amusedly. "I'm not gonna hurt you, idiot." Laxus squeezed Freed's waist slightly in reassurance and leaned his head around the startled man, proceeding to serve himself a large portion of food.

Feeling warmth curling up in his chest, Freed couldn't keep the soft smile from curling the corners of his lips up, relaxing as he was told to into Laxus's arms. Freed would trade almost anything to stay here, as he was right now, warm and safe in the arms of the man he had spent so many years convinced would never return his affections. Laxus may have been coarse and downright rude a lot of the time, but Freed knew that on the inside the dragon slayer was truly caring and warm- he was just too stubborn to show it most of the time.

In his own little piece of heaven Freed was happy simply watching his lover eat in front of him, humming occasionally to show Laxus he was listing to the blonde's idle chatter, snuggling closer and shifting occasionally to stay in the others lap. He realized now that the tightness that had been in his chest for the past week had dispersed into a warm glow, a tightness he hadn't even been conscious of until his love had returned home and-

_Home_.

Freed's eyes widened in surprise. The word made the warmth inside him glow brighter, and he straightened up at his revelation. That was what had been eating at him all this time- he had never before really had a place to call 'home.' When he was with the Raijinshū they had never really stayed in one place, preferring to take long jobs away from the guild, and although he had always recognized the place as his home it had never really felt like a real home for him. His life before with his biological family and at the orphanage had certainly not been his home, and even when he and Laxus began dating his apartment hadn't felt like a home either, even with the blonde in it.

In this little house on the outskirts of Magnolia was the first time Freed had ever felt truly at home. Because he knew that he and Laxus could always return here, have breakfast at this table, sleep in the bedroom down the hall, lounge together in the garden or the living room, or go on walks in the forest just past their backyard. It was a place they shared together, where Freed knew Laxus returned his feelings and they could be together without having to hide anything from their friends. It was home because it was _theirs_. Together. And hopefully, that wouldn't ever change.

"Freed," a hand pressed to the side of his face turned him towards the lightning mages worried expression. "What's the matter?" Laxus asked tentatively, brushing wetness away from Freed's cheeks softly with his thumb.

When he had begun to cry Freed had no idea, but he smiled as he looked into the blue eyes of the man he loved.

"It's nothing," he replied wetly to the anxious blonde. "I am just so very glad you are home."


End file.
